Confirmed: “Arsenal made an offer worth £29.3m” for 23-goal striker

Lyon have announced on their Twitter page that Arsenal have made a £29.3m (€35m) offer for Alexandre Lacazette but they’ve turned it down and insist the striker isn’t for sale.

Arsene Wenger is in the market for another top class striker to offer support for Olivier Giroud next season and Lacazette has emerged as a key target after we missed out on the likes of Vardy, Morata and Higuain.

The French international has been strongly linked with a move to the Emirates in recent weeks and reports in French outlet Le Progres this morning suggested that we’d submitted a £40m (€48m) offer.

Lyon have now taken to Twitter to release an official statement denying those reports and revealed that Arsenal’s bid was actually for £29.3m (€35m), however, the Ligue 1 club have rejected our offer and insist that Lacazette is not for sale.

The statement said:

The news has once again divided Arsenal fans on social media. Some are slamming the club for ‘low balling’ again on transfer fees while others feel we were right to start low to try to squeeze out the best possible deal.

There is also some debate over Lyon’s tactics by releasing a statement disclosing our offer. It’s certainly an unusual step and many feel the French club are trying to put pressure on Wenger to up his offer by insisting they don’t want to sell the 25-year-old.

Who knows, but the fact is that almost any player is available at the right price and Lacazette has been making noises through his agent that he wants a move, so I think there will be more movement in this saga over the coming weeks.

And I hope we can get a deal agreed because Lacazette would be an excellent signing for Arsenal as he’s quick, powerful, makes intelligent runs and knows where the goal is as he scored 23 goals last season and 31 the previous year.